seriously? You don't consider a resource that can double the life-span of soldiers or heal all kinds of battlefield injuries and conditions to be a "significant advantage?"

Remember that there was no indication at this point that the war would be a short one. I'm really amazed to continually read responses about how the particles wouldn't make a difference in war.

That the particles would be even slightly useful in a battlefield situation is a baseless assumption. What is said in the film is that the radiation "continually regenerates our genetic structure" or somesuch, which would make it useful for, yes, attacking cancers, and enhancing longevity. Healing wounds? That has nothing to do with genetic damage, so the particles would be useless for that.

OK, I guess you're right on that, I didn't remember that particular line. Still, doubling the life-span of your soldiers and adding to the pool of those who can serve by curing genetic problems and therefore greatly increasing the number of those available to serve in combat is still a huge advantage. Just because the war ended up being a short one doesn't mean it was inevitably going to be so.

You REALLY don't think a resource like this would be useful in a war lasting many years?

For not appreciating accusations of neoconservatism, I find it interesting that you see the benefits of the particles mainly in terms of how they improve military capacity. I'm sure a peaceful organization like the Federation is desperate to have soldiers with longer lifespans so they can, presumably, wage longer wars.